🧩 Tackling A+ Problems
Hello! Adam Thornhill here. ‘The Podcast Guy’ saving you 10 hours a week.
Enjoy the 119th Podup, with special thanks to ChatGPT Consulting.
Today, we’ll dive into the best insights and ideas from My First Million.
Something’s always on fire, whether it’s legal issues, stagnant growth, or operational failures. Shaan Puri calls these A+ problems. At any given time, a company has at least one A+ problem to solve.
In today’s post, Shaan shares his personal stories about getting to work on A+ problems at Twitch, then I explain how you can leverage this concept to nurture the best talent at your company.
Prioritize impactÂ
When we got acquired by Twitch, they gave me the title ‘Director of Esports’. My co-founder said something that stuck with me, ‘We should work on something that moves the needle at least 5%. Will Esports do that?’ I realized the answer was ‘Hell no.’
We basically went on strike from day one. We didn’t do any work until we figured out what was the A+ problem. I spoke to people at the company for 2 weeks, found a project, then pitched it to the CEO:
Me: Hey, this is a big problem. Do you have anyone who’s solving this?
CEO: No
Me: Cool, I’m free
CEO: You’re free? Aren’t you supposed to be working on Esports?
Me: Yeah, but this is bigger, right?
CEO: Yeah, it is bigger.
He then created a special team for this. We ran it and ended up making a big impact.
Shaan Puri
Permissionless ideas
This happened again. The top streamer at Twitch was this guy named Ninja. He was sponsored by Red Bull. He was a star. Then, Microsoft came and paid Ninja $20 million to leave Twitch and go over there. We lost our biggest streamer overnight.
I said ‘That’s the A+ problem right now.’ So I dropped everything I was doing and wrote a memo. No one told me to do it. I said ‘Here’s some data analysis on how big of a problem this is and here’s my strategy and recommendation for what we should do.’
I sent it to the CEO. He thought it was great so he put me in 3 group chats right away. These were the Exec teams working on the problem. They asked why I was added and he said I had some good thoughts on this. The lesson? As an entrepreneur, you should always be working on the A+ problem.
Shaan Puri
Why it matters
To point out the obvious, taking on A+ problems is a great technique for climbing the career ladder. But, for most of you reading this, you’ve already done that. So how can you apply this at your company? The answer – as a way to nurture talent.
Instead of graduate rotational programs that are too structured and lack any depth, give your best talent a chance to work on different A+ problems across your business.Â
You don’t necessarily have to let go of the reigns and give them a mission critical problem to own. Instead, you can give them exposure, train them on systems thinking, and give them the context to manage A+ problems in the future.
Next steps
Identify A+ problems. Conduct a thorough review of your challenges. What are the A+ problems that need immediate attention?
Map your talent. Identify high-potential employees who have the skills and the drive to tackle A+ problems.
Encourage pitches. Allow these employees to pitch how they would solve an A+ problem.
Create special teams. Form cross-functional teams specifically designed to solve A+ problems.
Provide support. Have weekly or bi-weekly meetings to discuss progress, roadblocks, and next steps.
Perform post-mortems. Conduct a review to understand what worked, what didn’t, and how to approach A+ problems in the future.
Rotate and learn. Once an A+ problem is tackled, rotate team members to different problems to give them exposure to various challenges.
Your thoughts?
Thanks to ChatGPT Consulting for making this post possible…
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Quotes were pulled at different points of the episode. Sentences were left out to make the narrative more concise. Podup is not associated or affiliated with any podcast.